THE Twenty20 tie with Surrey did not go at all to plan but Spitfires live to fight another day and I’m really delighted.

Had you offered me 10 points from the pool games and a place in the quarter-finals at the start of the year I’d have grabbed that opportunity.

I’m proud of the way the guys have played right through the qualifiers and the way they have responded to the preparations and I’m chuffed with our improvement on previous Twenty20 campaigns.

Hopefully we have learnt a few things from the Surrey game and it was always going to be a huge ask to come back after Benning and Brown got them off to such a fantastic start. I’m not sure any masterplan would have worked.

Our focus now is to get back into four-day mode and, with Andrew Hall departing, it gives us an opportunity to welcome Dwayne Bravo to Kent.

Hally’s contribution has been absolutely magnificent. He’s such a likeable fellow. The lads and the fans all love him, yet when he gets out there in the middle he’s is ultra-competitive.

One of the reasons our attitude has been so good this season is because of the example Andrew sets.

He has adopted Kent and he will be watching our performances through the internet and he told me if he feels the boys need a rev up at any stage he will be straight on the phone.

There’s no doubt he wants to play much more for Kent in the future.